The semiconductor integrated circuit (IC) industry has experienced rapid growth. Technological advances in IC materials and design have produced generations of ICs where each generation has smaller and more complex circuits than the previous generation. However, these advances have increased the complexity of processing and manufacturing ICs and, for these advances to be realized, similar developments in IC processing and manufacturing are needed.
In the course of IC evolution, functional density (i.e., the number of interconnected devices per chip area) has generally increased while geometry size (i.e., the smallest component (or line) that can be created using a fabrication process) has decreased. This scaling down process generally provides benefits by increasing production efficiency and lowering associated costs. Such scaling-down has also significantly increased the height to width ratio, the aspect ratio, of gaps that separate adjacent devices of ICs. Some ICs may include regions having gaps with varying aspect ratios. Conventional processing fills gaps with the same process. For example, gaps with varying aspect ratios are simultaneously filled with a high density plasma oxide. However, it has been observed that utilizing the same process for filling gaps with varying aspect ratios results in the formation of voids within gaps having higher aspect ratios. These voids contribute to poor device performance and junction leakage in areas with higher aspect ratio gaps.
Accordingly, what is needed is a method for making a semiconductor device that addresses the above stated issues.